Protests, Secret Service and a 'read-in' disrupt Trump rally at Radford Univ.
Donald Trump's worst nightmare came true at a rally on Radford University's campus on Feb. 29 — the focus was not always on him.
In a scene at least one local newspaper described as pure chaos, his speech to a packed auditorium of 11,000 attendees was continuously interrupted by #BlackLivesMatter protestors, who were removed from the rally at the Radford, Va., school by the Secret Service, according to Paste BN.
Time photographer Chris Morris was also detained after an altercation with Secret Service members.
Trump has been regularly met by protesters at his rallies, but tensions have risen after he came under fire on Sunday for not immediately condemning support from prominent white supremacist David Duke. Trump later blamed a faulty earpiece.
Earlier in the day, at a Trump rally at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Ga., Paste BN reports, about 30 black students standing silently at the top of the bleachers were escorted out by security officials before he began speaking. Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks in an email late Monday night denied that the students were shown the door “at the request of the candidate” or the campaign.
RELATED: Students removed from Trump rally in Georgia
At Radford, not all protesters did so with words. As many as 300 students participated in a silent "read-in," organized by the Racism and Reproductive Rights Awareness Project (RAP), according to its Facebook page. Scattered throughout the auditorium, they cracked open books and read while Trump spoke to show that his opinions should be disregarded.
The Facebook post asked that people "bring a book, preferably by a woman of color. We are not hecklers nor are we disputing Trump's right to speak. We plan to show up and sit quietly, reading a book."
Breanna Branscome, a sophomore at New River Community College in Dublin, Va., who traveled to Radford to attend the read-in protest, says she chose The Zahir by Paulo Coelho because it shows that racially diverse people can “enhance our society, as a whole. ... (Coelho) is very eloquent and enlightened, which is defense against Trump's arsenal of rudeness toward Hispanics.”
Radford junior Lesly Pineda-Manzano, an undocumented student who attends school under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, who did not participate in the read-in, says Trump’s visit to RU was "a slap in the face."
Radford, she says, "claims to want diversity but allows such a hateful man to have ... a rally here.”
Contributing: Kristen Rein, Paste BN College
Amanda Florian is a Milligan College student a Paste BN College correspondent.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.